Essay On Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that affects many of people every day affects both genders and a variety of ages. According to our Abnormal Psychology textbook, the definition of anorexia nervosa is; a serious condition marked by a restriction of energy intake relative to needed energy requirements, resulting in significantly low body weight in the context of age, sex, development, trajectory, and physical health. Anorexia nervosa is the fear of gaining weight or being over a certain weight. (Abnormal Psychology pg. 235).
There are three ways to identify feeding disorders. The first way to diagnose a feeding disorder is to determine persistent eating of nonnutritive, nonfood substances over a period of one month. The second way that a feeding disorder can be diagnosed is if the eating nonnutritive, nonfood substances is inappropriate to the developmental level of the individual. The third and final way to determine an eating disorder is if the eating …show more content…
There are many symptoms of this disorder. The most common symptom of anorexia nervosa is intense dieting. Intense dieting is dieting improperly and pushing the body beyond its capabilities. When they realize that this isn’t working they usually switch to normal dieting. People with this eating disorder have a strong fear of gaining weight, and this specific symptom is an evaluation symptom. Another symptom of anorexia nervosa is the distorted view of one’s body weight, size, or shape. A small list of some of the other symptoms are; absence of menstrual cycles, hiding or discarding food, counting calories, rapid weight loss, denial of feeling hungry, tired, cold or weak, lack of energy, constipation, hair loss and slow heart rate. Another serious symptom is vomiting after eating. Sometimes people make themselves vomit after they eat. This is a serious symptom of anorexia nervosa that could potentially lead to